Articulated railway vehicle



July 3, 1951 J. M VEIGH 2,559,540 I ARTICULATED RAILWAY VEHICLE FiledJuly 2, 194a 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

Filed July 2, 1948 July 3, 1951 MacVE]G|-| 2,559,540

ARTICULATED RAILWAY VEHICLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 'I l lllllllllllllllllllnPatented July 3, 1951 ARTICULATED RAILWAY VEHICLE James MacVeigh, NewYork, N. Y., assignor to Patentes Talgo, S. A., Madrid, Spain, acorporation of Spain Application July 2, 1948, Serial No. 36,570

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an articulated railway vehicle and aims toprovide a railway vehicle consisting of short articulated sections sointegrated as to ride as a unit.

It has been found that danger of derailment on curves may be reduced byguided wheels. Guiding of the wheels to avoid danger of derailment isobtained in a train of cars each of which has only one pair of wheelswhich are located at its rear end with their axis held perpendicular tothe axis of the car, provided that the cars are short in length. Such atrain is, however, unsatisfactory for practical use since very shortrailways cars are subject to pitching motions which are uncomfortablefor passengers and Which may introduce dangerous strains on thestructural parts. This difliculty is avoided in accordance with thepresent invention by providing a single long railway vehicle consistingof articulated sections which are integrated by connecting means whichkeep the ends of the sections in alignment and restrain any relativerotation or rolling of the ends of adjacent sections.

An articulated vehicle constructed in accordance with the presentinvention has a body consisting of a number of short rigid sections eachof which has a pair of wheels and a spring suspension at its rear end.The adjacent ends of adjacent sections are connected by integratingmeans each of which includes a central connection and lateralconnections. nection includes a vertical pivot and most desirably auniversal joint. It is formed to prevent relative translationalmovements of adjacent ends of adjacent sections but not to preventrelative rotational movements of the section ends. The lateralconnections are provided to prevent relative rotational movements of theends of adjacent sections and, being located at the sides of thevehicle, are capable of preventing such relative movements without beingsubject to undue strain. The lateral connections are formed in such away that they do not interfere with relative horizontal turningmovements of the sections about the pivot of the central connection. Thelateral connections are formed entirely of pivoted bars so that theiroperation involves no sliding friction.

In order that my invention may clearly be understood, I will describethe specific embodiments of it which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a bottom perspective view of adjacent ends of two sections ofthe vehicle body The central con- Lil showing the connections betweenthem, the wheels and spring suspensions being omitted for the sake ofclearness;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the central connection;

' Fig. 3 is a detail of the lateral connections;

Fig. 4 is a side view of the end portions of two adjacent sections ofthe vehicle showing the lateral connections shown in Fig. 1;

Figs. 5 and 6 are views similar to Fig. 4 showing two modified forms ofthe lateral connections;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary rear elevation of one of the sections showingone of the wheels an one of the spring suspensions; and

Figs. 8A and 8B are diagrammatic elevations of the end portions, of twoadjacent sections taken from opposite sides of the vehicle to show theaction of the lateral connections when the vehicle is on a curve in thetrack.

The vehicle illustrated consists of a plurality of rigid body sections,two of which, a, a, are shown in the drawings. Each section has a pairof wheels b at its rear end and is mounted on its wheels by springsuspensions which may consist of vertical coil springs b as shown inFig. '7. As shown in Fig. 7, each wheel is mounted on a short shaft b2whose ends are held in slides b3 mounted on vertical rods b4 secured tothe body of the section. The mounting illustrated serves to retain theaxis of each wheel perpendicular to the axis of the section on which itis mounted. The integrating means which make the sections ride as a uniton the spring suspensions I)" include central connections 0 and lateral.connections d.

The central connection 0 is a universal joint coupling provided with avertical pivot 01 and a horizontal pivot 02, which serves to support theweight of the front end of one section on the wheelsupported rear end ofthe adjacent section, and also to prevent any relative horizontal orvertical transverse movement of the section ends. In order to avoid thesevere strains which are placed on the coupler by relative tipping orrotational motions of the section ends, one end of the coupler c isattached to one of the section ends by a horizontal pivot 03. Thecoupler connection thus has no tendency to prevent relative rotationalmovements of the section ends.

The lateral connections d consist of a series of rods connectingbrackets d1 located at widely spaced points of one of the sections, andbrackets (12 located at widely spaced points of the other section. Thebrackets di and d2 are most desirably placed near the sides of thevehicle so that each pair of brackets is separated by a distance greaterthan the gauge of the wheels. Each bracket (11 is connected to one ofthe brackets dz by two rods or bars d4, d5. The rod or arm (14, which isnormally horizontal, is hinged in the bracket (12, and the rod d5, whichis normally substantially vertical, is connected to the rod d; and tothe bracket :11 by universal joints. Means are provided for preventingthe two rods or arms 114 at opposite sides of the vehicle from swingingin opposite directions. Such means in the form shown consists of atransverse rod d3 which is made integral with the arms (1",.

such turning movements tend to raise each arm d4 and this is freelypermitted by the journalling of the transverse rods (13 in the bracketsdz.

The operation of the lateral connections when the vehicle is rounding acurve in the track is shown in Figs. 8A and 3B. The normally verticalrod lit at the outside or the curve is swung rearwardly out of verticalposition as shown in Fig. 8A, while the corresponding rod (15 at theinside of the curve is swung forwardly out of vertical position as shownin Fig. 8B. These two opposite swinging movements of the vertical rod d5raise the free ends of the arms d; by the same amount so that they causeno strain on the transverse rod d3. Thus, the lateral connections, whilerestraining relative rolling movements of the sections, offer norestraint to the turning of the sections on a horizontal curve.

In order to avoid shocks and undue strain on the lateral connections,they are constructed so as to yield slightly against a strong resilientforce in resisting relative rolling of the section ends. To permit suchyielding, the transverse rod d3 is formed of spring steel which iscapable of a slight torsional yield. Also the universal joints at theends of the vertical rods (15 are most desirably of the yielding type asshown in Fig. 3. Thus the ends of the arms d4 are secured in clamps (16at the ends of the vertical rods d5, and these clamps are provided withhard rubber sleeves (17 which yield sufficiently to permit the slightuniversal joint action required. The upper ends of the vertical rods 015are also connected with the brackets all through hard rubber washers d8which provide the universal joint action at this point.

It is not essential that the brackets (1 and d2 be located in thepositions indicated in Figs. 1 and 4. Thus as in the modification shownin Fig. 5, the brackets d1 are located near the bottom of one of thesection ends and the arms (14' are bent upwardly so as to place theirends above the brackets (21. In the modification shown in Fig. 6, thebrackets (11 are in the same position as shown in Fig. 5, but thebrackets d2 are placed near the top of the other section so that theirarms (14. may be made straight and yet terminate above the brackets d1.

What I claim is:

1. An articulated railway vehicle comprising rigid body sectionsandconnections integrating the sections and each including a centralconmection containing a vertical pivot, and lateral connectionscomprising a normally vertical rod having one of its ends pivotallyattached to one section and a normally horizontal rod hinged on theother section at each side of the vehicle, a pivotal connection betweenthe free end of each vertical rod and the free end of each horizontalrod, and transverse means on said other section connecting and therebyrestraining the two horizontal rods at the opposite sides of the sectionfrom turning in opposite directions, while permitting free turningthereof in the same direction.

2. In an articulated railway vehicle, the combination with rigid bodysections each havinga pair of wheels and a spring suspension at its rearend, of integrating means causing the sec.- tions to ride as a unit onthe spring suspensions and each consisting of a central pivotalconnection restraining relative transverse movement of adjacent ends ofadjacent sections, and lateral connections restraining relativerotational movements of the adjacent ends of adjacent sections whilepermitting relative turning of ad'- jacent sections about the pivot ofthe central connection and consisting of a transverse rod journalled onone of the adjacent sections, normally horizontal arms fixed to thetransverse rod at opposite sides of said section, a pair of normallyvertical rods pivoted at opposite sides of the other one of the adjacentsections, and a pivotal connection between the end of each vertical rodand the end of each horizontal arm.

JAMES MAcVEIGI-I.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 145,366 Saladee Dec. 9, 1873397,902 Elliott Feb. 19, 1889 746,941 Facer et a1 Dec. 15, 19032,104,840 Stucki Jan. 11, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date693,928 Germany July 22, 1940

